By adding the largest hyperbaric chamber in the region, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow is trying to continue to add diverse services for its patients.
The department of hyberbaric medicine at Phelps opened in late 2006 and provides hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a medical treatment during which patients breathe pure oxygen while sitting inside a pressurized chamber.
With a capacity to hold up to 12 patients at a time, the chamber at Phelps is the largest in the Northeast, said Dr. Owen J. O”™Neill, the center”™s medical director and a hyperbaric specialist for more than 15 years.
“This gives a great benefit for the community and makes a profit for the hospital,” O”™Neill said. “It enhances the hospital”™s purpose of being here.”
Phelps”™ hyperbaric chamber has served about 12 patients per day since opening.
Hyperbaric medicine is used to treat a variety of conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, bone infections and open wounds.
The hyperbaric treatment is often used as an additional treatment to wound care, said O”™Neill.
“That”™s probably the most frequent thing we”™ve done so far,” he said.
Benefits of hyperbaric oxygen include improved oxygenation of wounds and damaged tissue, which accelerates the healing process.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment also stimulates white blood cells to fight infection, enhances the effects of some antibiotics and promotes new blood vessel growth.
Most patients require about 30 to 40 treatments to complete their course of therapy, O”™Neill said.
In addition to serving as an ancillary treatment, the hyperbaric chamber can be used in emergency situations as well, he said.
For example, the hyperbaric staff recently treated a patient suffering from frostbite. The increased amount of oxygen in the tissues of the patient”™s fingertips helped eventually heal the fingers and prevent them from being amputated.
Another advantage of the large hyperbaric chamber is that it allows physicians to be in the chamber with patients, O”™Neill said.
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A nurse specially trained in hyperbaric procedures accompanies patients during the entire treatment. The hyperbaric physician oversees each treatment from either the control console or by actively participating in patient care inside the chamber.
Keith Safian, president and chief executive officer of Phelps, said bringing in the hyperbaric chamber was part of the hospital”™s expanding to meet patient-care needs.
“The hyperbaric chamber is part of this focus, of seizing opportunities to serve this community.”
The cost of buying the chamber and equipment and adding the additional space to house it was $1.5 million, and Safian believes that investment was well worth it.
“When the hospital expands, it stimulates the local economy and adds jobs.”
He said Phelps has seen an increase in patients who were referred from other hospitals in the county that don”™t have the same kind of extensive hyperbaric treatment available.
He said adding new programs to the hospital also allows for employees who are interested in career growth to stay with Phelps without having to go elsewhere.
“We”™re finding new lines of business in this hospital by being much more proactive than other community hospitals,” he said.
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